Is there somthing wrong with my Camellias?

lma84April 15, 2013

I am completely new to gardening and have a question about my camellias. We moved into a new house in the upstate of SC (zone 7) last summer and there are two large camellia bushes in front of the house. They started blooming beautiful pink flowers about a month and a half ago. I was researching the flowers and learned that I can cut them and arrange them in my house...but when ever I try to touch the flowers, the petals just fall off, or the flower falls off the stem very easily. I went through the bushes today to clean up the fallen and dead petals and realized that there are only 3 blooms left. Is there something wrong with my camellia plant? is this the end of the season for blooms? Is there something I can do to make the blooms stronger for next season? Any advice is definitely appreciated!

I think you are fine. This is getting late in the blooming season for my zone and probably yours as well. During the last week, I saw the last bloom of a Kanjiro and the week before that was the last blooms of a White by the Gate & a Debutante. Late bloomers in Zone 6 will probably be blooming there now though.

I do not measure how long blooms have been open but maybe 1-2 weeks per bloom? Temperatures that go up/down a lot or periods of moisture followed by dry soil can also cause bud drop, where the buds fall unopened. The blooms will stay open for a while but not as long as they would in a hydrangea for example, so I would expect them to eventually fall. So evenly moist, well mulched soil will help and so will temperaures that do not wildly fluctuate (but you have no control about that of course). Try to maintain 3-4" of mulch up to the drip line.

Make a note in a wall calendar that gives you an idea of when the plant bloomed on prior years so you get a feel of how it is doing. Do not be surprised if it blooms ealier or later in some years though. I just had all camellias here start blooming very late compared to prior years. Well timed cold snaps by Mother Nature appear to be the cause of my late bloomage.